Over time, circumstances change. People get married or divorced, children are born, and even the level of financial wealth that an individual possesses may increase or decrease. All these scenarios may call for making some changes to an existing last will and testament. The good news is that the steps require to change a will are not all that difficult. In fact, a good bit of the work can be completed before you ever schedule an appointment with your attorney.
Review the Provisions of the Current Will
In order to get started with making updates to your last will and testament, it helps to start with the document that is already in place. Sit down with a copy of the will, and have a highlighter and pen on hand. Start at the beginning and read through every paragraph, provision, and codicil (changes to the original will) found in the document.
As you reach each paragraph or section in the document, you should perform one of three tasks. If the paragraph is still to your liking and relevant for your situation as it stands today, then you simply leave it alone. That section will be used in the amended will as is, with no change made at all.
When a section is mostly still okay but only requires minor changes, you will want to use the highlighter to mark that paragraph or series of paragraphs. This will serve as a reminder that you do want to make some changes while still retaining most of the verbiage contained in that section. For example, you may have a section that calls for the balance in one of your bank accounts to be divided equally among your two children. If you've had a third child since the last will was drafted, then updating this section to include the latest addition to the family is important.
The final option with the existing text is to use the black pen to strike through any paragraphs or sections that no longer have any relevance to your or to your estate. Perhaps there are sections related to assets that you had originally intended to leave to your spouse. If the marriage ended in divorce and you no longer wish to include the former spouse in the listing of heirs, it only makes sense to eliminate this section altogether.
Identifying Changes and Additions
Once you identify which sections need some minor changes, go back and add those changes using a red pen. Doing so will make it much easier for the attorney to quickly scan through and see how to make those updates.
When you need to add some new sections, these can also be written out in longhand using the red pen. Feel free to simply include those at the end of the document for now. There will be time to determine where they will best fit in the body of the will later on.
At the Attorney's Office
Once you have all the changes noted, take the document to your attorney. A legal professional can look over the changes and determine if there is any conflict with the rest of the document. The attorney can then tweak the verbiage so it will hold up in a court of law. The attorney will also add a preface to the document that proclaims that this current will replaces the previous document in full, and does constitute your most recent wishes.
